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Velma left her home in New York and her activities in the civil rights movement to permanently relocate to France in 1968 with her soon-to-be husband, Belgian sculptor Pol Bury. She and Pol booked passage on an Italian ocean liner and sailed to Cannes. Velma recalls that the ship was quite sumptuous and she has vivid memories of the four-day journey.
The day after setting sail, the ship’s passengers and crew learned that Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. The captain called an assembly to announce the news. Being the only African American aboard, Velma inadvertently became the “go to” person for Europeans who wanted to learn more about race relations in the United States. Solely by virtue of her race, she became the ship’s “celebrity” passenger – a veritable cultural ambassador for the U.S.! She found that she would continue to be thrust into this role once she arrived in France.
Upon arriving in Cannes, Velma and Pol went to nearby Saint Paul de Vence, where Pol had been invited to stay at the Fondation Maeght. This was at a time when European artists had a great deal of difficulty getting their works exhibited in the U.S. Velma settled in and began to meet the numerous artists – including Joan Miró and Alexander Calder – who stayed at the foundation. She found that up and coming artists who visited the foundation viewed her not as an African American, but rather as a member of this “art establishment.” Because she had been quite active in the art world in New York prior to having met Pol and because she understood the politics behind the museums and galleries there, she was the logical person to ask about this American “shut-out” of European artists. She found it interesting that merely by crossing the ocean, what had been the predominant aspect of her American identity – her blackness – became virtually insignificant in the face of her perceived place among the power brokers of the art world.
Pol and Velma frequently came up to Paris during the student uprisings of 1968. She recalls watching the student demonstrations on boulevard du Montparnasse from the “safety” of the café La Coupole during her first visit to Paris that year, and then having to flee the establishment through the kitchen when the students ran into the café followed by the police. She wryly observed that while she and Pol were not personally involved with the students, the police would not have taken the time to ask them for their passports had they stayed in their seats at the café!
When Velma and Pol decided to move to Paris permanently, they found a working studio on boulevard Raspail in the heart of Montparnasse that they would come to call home. Velma supervised the renovation of the huge space into an apartment over the following year, and she and Pol lived there until Pol’s death in 2005. Velma still occupies this apartment today. With her consent, the residents of the building paid tribute to Pol and his achievements by gifting a plaque that they placed on the façade of the building in 2008.
Some time after moving to Paris, Pol found a second property in the French countryside that he purchased for use as an atelier for creating his monumental works and fountains. He wanted a place that was isolated so that the noise from the construction of his sculptures would not bother the neighbors and found it in a small hamlet near Giverny. Though they continued to visit the south of France regularly for the next 40 years, they found their permanent home in the Ile-de-France region.
Velma’s interest in art began at a very early age. One of her uncles was a “Sunday painter.” He decorated the family apartment with his own art as well as reproductions of fine art. This influenced her greatly as she grew older and began visiting museums and viewing original pieces. When she became an adult, she found that she increasingly preferred to spend her free time engaging in art-related activities.
Velma’s first husband, Chris Shelton, was an African-American abstract expressionist artist. He held a position at the Sidney Janis Gallery, which was one of the most powerful galleries in New York at the time. It became known for its support of abstract expressionist artists such as de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell, and other American artists specializing in this genre of painting. Velma would meet these artists, develop an eye for abstract expressionist painting, and learn the workings of the white-dominated New York art scene because of Chris’ association with the gallery. She supported his work by organizing shows for him at their apartment. She thoroughly enjoyed the milieu and became quite experienced at mixing with the dominant players of the time.
Some time after separating from Chris, Velma discovered Pol Bury’s art at a show at the Lefebre Gallery in 1964. She fell in love with his playful kinetic sculptures (see video below), but would not meet the artist himself for another two years.
Video from PolBury.com Web site
Their first encounter took place at the opening of Pol’s second show at the Lefebre Gallery in 1966, and Velma fondly remembers that she almost did not attend the opening because she learned about it after she had already gotten ready for bed. Friends of hers convinced her to change into her clothes and come out to the opening, and her life was irrevocably changed because of it. Pol and Velma’s courtship began that evening, and continued across the ocean until Pol was invited into the Gallery Maeght in 1968. He invited her to come with him, and she accepted.
Come back to the Entrée to Black Paris blog next week, when I'll publish Part 2 of Velma's story.
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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.
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